Page 3 of Cherry Moon

How dare I be so laser-focused on baking and boinking my precious slice of man pie?

How dare I have found love?

Lost and drifting and hiding.

I rolled my eyes, hating this stupid comedown after my baking high.

Overthinking, who’d want it?

A shadow slithered into my garden, red eyes aimed my way, claws out to tear and kill.

I folded my arms, cocking my head to the side. “I was just thinking about you.”

CHAPTER TWO

AKIRA

“You!” it hissed.

“Me.” I leaned on the doorframe, watching it glide back a few feet and quiver around the edges, afraid.

“Out of your prison, eh?” I said.

I called these free ones floaters because, well, they were turds.

The mazoku made no moves to attack me, and I didn’t dash for my katanas stored under my bed.

“What do you want?” I asked, checking my nails, giving the prick the indifference it deserved.

It hissed, its body shrinking. “Better than this.”

The mazoku vanished.

“Oh. No scrap? What a shame.”

I rolled my shoulders, letting out a yawn.

Life wasn’t all about those demonic wankers, guilt, and telling my brain to piss off. I had a wedding coming up.

Hell to the yeah.

The seventh night of Cherry Moon was the prettiest, when the ruby lunar rays were just mind-blowing, even turning the stars into twinkling, cherry-red jewels, the sky itself a gorgeous inky purple hue.

So pretty, so right for our wedding.

On the seventh night this year, we’d be saying our vows under the juiciest of moons right here at the cottage. All the plans were in place, the big day only seven days away.

Yikes. Yay. And more yikes.

I’d been baking my way through some wedding anxieties up until this point. I was super excited, but also nervous as hell now it was closing in.

G had proposed to me almost three years ago, after that Christmas Wanyūdō incident in Cardiff. He made me cry, and made me so happy. I couldn’t believe it. I think I pinched myself about fifty times a day that week.

My poor arm.

We’d discussed a summer wedding but couldn’t quite agree on a month. When the Cherry Moon became a thing for the next couple of years, the decision was made to do the deed this Holy Week. Really get ourselves a mega tenshi blessing, you know?

Let them smile upon our marriage with cherrylicious glee.